Review
"Fungi have rarely been big-ticket items in scientific research in the US. . . . Many, however, consider fungi worthy of their own kingdom and all agree that they belong in the phylogenetic tree right next door to their closest relatives, the animals . . . Fungi can be great models for understanding how all eukaryotic cells work and, beyond that, they are uniquely important themselves. . . . Thus in all, Neurospora is a tremendous resource that is increasingly being exploited for basic research while also providing a road map for the fungi in general. . . . One needs a great compilation, at once informed and informative without being exhaustive and thereby exhausting. Organizing this, much less pulling it off, must really be a labor of love, an effort put forth by someone who has matured along with the system and can separate the spores from the agar. Fortunately, this field is blessed with more than one such grown-up, and one of them, Rowland Davis, has done it."--Cell

"In this book, Rowland Davis . . . provides a thorough, up-to-date, authoritative, and tightly written summary of the intricacies of Neurospora biology and the field's many contributions to our understanding of biological processes. Each of the 14 chapters is extensively referenced and profusely illustrated with photographs, diagrams, and maps. For researchers new to Neurospore the final chapter offers a guide to genetic, biochemical, and molecular methodologies to domesticate and manipulate this well-tempered organism. . . . Davis's book is particularly timely because funds have been committed, since its publication, to complete the sequencing of the Neurospora genome. This development promises a renaissance in the relevance of the organism to advancing science. . . . The species that first enabled the dissection of gene function is, thus, well placed to provide the best tools for completing the catalog of genes essential for normal life in all eukaryotes."--Science

Product Description
This book will serve as the definitive reference work on the basic physiology, biochemistry, development, genetics, and molecular biology of Neurospora, together with a description of basic laboratory methods. Among the filamentous fungi, Neurospora is a basic model organism, used initially in the establishment of the one-gene, one-enzyme principle, and it has become a favored research organism in a variety of biological problems since that time. Until now, there has been no standard guide to the organism. The book reviews early research since 1927 and describes the current state of the major research programs now being pursued. Each chapter includes detailed literature references for the scholar and experimentalist. Both researchers in the filamentous fungi and biologists requiring information about Neurospora will find this an invaluable resource because it gathers 75 years of scattered research literature into a coherent account.